SAN FRANCISCO / A doggy-centric day in the park

Keay Davidson, Chronicle Science Writer

Published 4:00 am, Sunday, August 27, 2006

Photo: KURT ROGERS /THE CHRONICLE

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Eric Brody pets his Greyhound Treyce(cq), a dog that he rescued from the racing circuit. During the dog fair in Dolores Park. Dog fair in Dolores Park its called the SFDOG.
KURT ROGERS /THE CHRONICLE SAN FRANCISCO THE CHRONICLE
SFC DOG_STORY_0110_kr.jpg MANDATORY CREDIT FOR PHOTOG AND SF CHRONICLE / -MAGS OUT less

Eric Brody pets his Greyhound Treyce(cq), a dog that he rescued from the racing circuit. During the dog fair in Dolores Park. Dog fair in Dolores Park its called the SFDOG.
KURT ROGERS /THE CHRONICLE SAN ... more

Photo: KURT ROGERS /THE CHRONICLE

SAN FRANCISCO / A doggy-centric day in the park

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Dogs and their owners -- uh, that is, "caregivers" -- took over Dolores Park on Saturday for hours of playing, relaxing and networking.

A wisecracking artist sketched caricatures of dog-caregiver couples, while an animal "communicator" from Marin County met with potential customers interested in her unusual service: She'll try to understand your pet's feelings and thoughts so that you two can get along better.

Dog-oriented wares were on sale, and a masseuse offered massages for tired, tense pooches worn out by a hard afternoon of Frisbee-chasing.

"Life is good when you share it with a dog" is a motto of the canine festival's organizer, SFDOG, a.k.a. the San Francisco Dog Owners Group, a 900-member, dues-paying organization that tries to make San Francisco safer, saner and more fun for canines -- and the humans in their lives.

"We're doing this to celebrate the 'dog days' of August," joked the organization's chair, Sally Stephens, a veteran science writer and caregiver for a border collie mix, as she describes it.

The group has held public workshops on everything from how to train your dog not to attack police horses (workshops in which the SFPD gladly participates -- with horses) to how to practice better canine etiquette such as the do's and don'ts of managing pooch poop in public places.

The group also teaches kids how to "read" dogs' body language to minimize the risk of being bitten.

Near Stephens' display booth, artist Rhoda Grossman of Mill Valley prepared to start sketching caricatures of pets and their owners.

The great thing about sketching pets is that "none of my subjects asks me to make them look younger," cracked Grossman, the Jackie Mason of pet caricaturists, who kept a reporter laughing and struggling to write coherent notes as she peppered him with one-liners.

This is her fifth stint in a year as a pet caricaturist, and it's good for business. "I don't really specialize in (drawing) dogs)," she noted, "but a gig is a gig."

Lisa Hartnett, a gentle-voiced San Rafael chiropractor who also offers her services in animal communication, set up a small stand in the park where she could meet those interested in her work. Like the pet communicator portrayed by Jessica Lange in the Jim Jarmusch film "Broken Flowers," Hartnett tries to understand what the creature is trying to tell its human guardians.

"It involves understanding the animal -- hearing their thoughts and their feelings, and understanding their world," so that Hartnett can interpret "how they would like their (caregiver) to treat them differently."

"Most of us relate to animals as objects, through domination. We haven't really been cultured to treat it as an individual," she explained. Her service -- which includes house calls, if requested -- isn't just for the dogs: "I've done snakes, goats, pigs, cats, horses."

The only animal that ever stubbornly resisted her effort to understand it was -- you guessed it -- a cat. But she realizes that every now and then, a creature might wish to be left alone: "If some animal doesn't want to connect with me, I honor that."

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